"I tell yo" uns," added the leader, shrugging his shoulders, "it"s no fun facing them rotten b.a.l.l.s. They skeer a feller."
"Why didn"t yo" uns lick "em?" asked Harry.
"Lick "em? Say, young feller, Did yo" un ever face the Merrill Hoss?"
"No; but the boys heah reckon they would like to have the chance."
"Ha! ha!" laughed the guerrillas. "Wall, go on and join Poindexter, an"
yo" uns may have a chance. See how you like it after the Merrill Hoss gits a whack at yo" uns," and, laughing and jesting, they rode on.
When the guerrillas were first met, Jack Harwood gave a start of surprise, and a look of fierce pa.s.sion swept over his face. He suddenly pulled his slouch hat down so as to hide his features, turned and kept as far away as he could without exciting suspicion.
When the guerrillas had gone, he rode up to Harry, his eyes blazing, and his whole body trembling with suppressed excitement.
"I know two of those fellows," he exclaimed, "They were with the gang that murdered father. One of them was the one that fired the house.
Mother knew them. There were six of them, and I know every one. I have sworn to get the whole six, and I will if I live."
The look of hatred on his face made Harry shiver, but he knew how he felt; so had he felt when he saw his father lying dead before him.
"I had all I could do to keep from shooting them while they were talking to you," continued Jack. "It makes me feel like a coward to let such a chance go."
"It would have been madness, Jack. Then, we are not out to fight if we can avoid it, but to get information. Never let your pa.s.sion lead you to do a foolish thing."
Jack said no more, but fell back in the rear.
It was almost night, and Harry decided to go into camp, as he had not learned the exact whereabouts of Poindexter.
Suddenly some one asked, "Where is Jack Harwood?"
Harry looked. He was nowhere to be seen.
"Does any one know anything about him?" he asked, anxiously.
One of the men said: "Jack stopped just after the guerrillas left us. He said the girth of his saddle was loose, and he would have to fix it. I thought no more about him, and as I have been riding in front, I did not notice he was not with us."
Could Jack have been captured by lurking guerrillas? They would go back and see. It would not do to leave a comrade in peril. If Jack had been captured, Bruno would have little trouble in following the trail. It was not more than two miles back to the place where the soldier had seen Jack dismount to fix his saddle girth, but there was no sign of a struggle there; no evidence that any guerrilla had been lying in ambush.
But by the side of the road there were tracks of where a horse had been turned and ridden back.
"By heavens!" exclaimed one of the men, "Jack has deserted. Don"t you remember one of those guerrillas said they lived in Ralls County?--and Jack is from Ralls."
The other men began to swear. "If we ever catch him," they muttered, with clenched fists.
"Hold on, boys," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Harry; "Jack has not deserted, but he has gone, and gone alone, on one of the maddest adventures that ever single man set out to do."
Then he told them of what Jack had said, and added: "No doubt he has gone back to try and get those men."
"Let"s go back and try to help him!" exclaimed the squad in unison.
Harry shook his head. "No, boys," he said; "and if you wish to continue with me, you must promise me that you will not leave under any conditions whatever, without my consent. We are soldiers. We are under orders, and those orders are to find Poindexter. To try and find Jack would lead us we know not where, and bring the whole object of our scout to naught."
The men saw, and turned back; but with heavy hearts, for their thoughts were with Jack.
The scouts went into camp not far from a substantial farmhouse, and the occupants were a little more communicative than common, especially when Harry told them to set up a good meal for them, and he would pay for it, saying they had captured some Yankee money.
Their mouths being open, Harry found they had a son with Poindexter, and he had left home only that morning. They had heard the son say Poindexter was preparing to attack some place. They thought it was Columbia, but were not sure.
Harry made his camp in the edge of a wood, a field in front. A rough road ran through the wood, a short distance in the rear. If danger came, it would be by that road that Harry calculated to retreat. They were to rest till three o"clock, then up and away. Harry knew that with Bruno on guard there would be no surprise, but he could not rest. He was thinking of Jack Harwood.
About eleven o"clock, to Harry"s surprise, Harwood made his appearance.
"If it hadn"t been for Bruno," he said, "I would never have found you.
He met me down the road a ways, and guided me here."
"Where have you been?" asked Harry.
"Where have I been?" he answered, slowly. "On private business. I will tell you about it in the morning."
"You must promise never again to leave without permission, or this is your last scout with me," said Harry, sternly.
Jack did not answer. He turned to care for his horse.
When Jack stopped, under the pretence of fixing the girth of his saddle, it was with the fixed purpose, come what would, of following those guerrillas and killing the men who had helped murder his father. Had he not taken a solemn oath to kill them on sight? He did not stop to think how he could accomplish his purpose--of the danger of the undertaking.
He only knew he had seen the men; that was enough. He would track them, if necessary, to the ends of the earth. As it was, fate favored him.
The guerrillas, all unconscious that Nemesis was on their track, rode on until dusk, when they stopped at a fine plantation, and roughly ordered supper and feed for their horses.
Mr. Rice, the owner of the plantation, was a hot Southern sympathizer, but he did not relish his present company. He felt like kicking them out of doors, but he knew it would not do to refuse them, so he made the best of it, and ordered supper prepared.
It was a good supper, and, in the highest of spirits, nine of the guerrillas sat down; the tenth was on guard. But he did not notice a silent figure creeping up to the window of the room in which the rest were dining.
Suddenly there was a sharp report, a crash of gla.s.s, and one of the diners sprang to his feet and fell backward, shot through the brain. At the same time a voice rang through the room. "Remember Thomas Harwood, Number One. Let the other five beware!"
At the sound of the shot and the fall of their comrade, the other guerrillas sat as if stunned for a moment; then with cries of terror they rushed from the house, thinking a Yankee force was on them; but a single shot, and excited cries from the sentinel, were all that they heard.
Before the attack, the sentinel had seen or heard nothing, but afterwards he had caught a glimpse of a dim figure fleeing up the road.
He had fired, but there was no response to his shot.
When told what the voice had said, he turned pale and trembled. "My G.o.d!" he exclaimed, "it must have been Jack Harwood, Tom Harwood"s son.
There were six of us who put a quietus on that old Abolitionist. I heard the boy took a terrible oath he would never rest until he got the whole six. After that we lay for the boy, but he gave us the slip and went in the Yankee army. So, poor Ben is done for. He was one of the six. My being on guard is all that saved me. But whar did the boy come from? How did he know we" uns was heah?"
This question greatly puzzled the guerrillas, until one of them spoke: "I reckon them seven fellers we" uns met was Yanks. That Harwood boy must have been one of them. He saw you two fellers, and follered we" uns heah, and got poor Ben."
"Boys, I"ll never feel easy as long as Jack Harwood lives," said the one who had escaped. "That boy is a devil. That"s nine of us--only seven of them. Let"s turn back and take them by surprise. We" uns can shoot them up."
It was agreed to, and so the guerrillas turned back.
After the return of Jack, Harry had lain down for a time, but could not sleep. He knew something had happened, but could not imagine what it was. Surely, Jack had not engaged the guerrillas single-handed. But he would have to wait until morning to know. Just as he was sinking into sleep, Bruno caught him by the shoulder and shook him. He was on his feet in a second.
Everything seemed quiet, and the guard said he had heard nothing, but Bruno showed by his actions everything was not right.